Diaries and Photograph Albums of Miss Edith Baring-Gould

This collection includes a sequence of 41 travel journals of Miss Edith Baring-Gould. One series relates to travels, in the company of her father, in North America, Japan, China and Ceylon, August 1894-February 1895 and the first volume, for example, encompasses New York, Niagara, Toronto, Winnipeg, the Rocky Mountains and British Columbia. Another series relates to travels, again with her father, to Egypt, India and Italy, November 1899-April 1900. Other journals relate to her travels in which she accompanied Church Missionary Society delegations, including one delegation to the Far East, 1912-1913, another to Egypt and Palestine, 1921 and a third to India and Ceylon in 1921-1922. She also toured Central Africa in 1927 where she witnessed the celebrations marking the 50th birthday of the CMS mission in Uganda. In the 1930s she made two visits to East Africa.

These journals are complemented by an important series of early photograph albums, two of which directly relate to the journals of her travels in India and Ceylon in 1899-1900 and in Egypt in 1921. Other albums relate to Ceylon, Japan and China at a time when her father was secretary in charge of the missions. One album, covering the period 1887-1888, relates to her father's visit with a "Jubilee Missionary Band" on board the P & O steamer SS Khedive to India.

Edith Baring-Gould was the daughter of Reverend Baring Baring-Gould who was CMS Home Secretary from 1888 until 1894 and then became secretary in charge of the Ceylon, China, Japan and Canada Missions. He retired in 1913 and died in 1917. Edith was a member of the CMS Headquarters staff and served on many of its Committees in the 1940s and 1950s. Her active involvement with the CMS lasted more than 50 years.

Reference: University of Birmingham, Special Collections Department, Online Archive Catalogue ( http://calmview.bham.ac.uk/ ). Accessed May 2002.

This collection forms part of the Church Missionary Society Unofficial Papers. It is arranged into two series: Family Papers (divided into sub-series) and Miscellaneous Papers.

Open. Access to all registered researchers.

The collection was presented to the Church Missionary Society in August 1961, and transferred to the Special Collections Department in the 1980s.

Please see the full catalogue for further details.

Edith Baring-Gould's travel journals have been microfilmed and were micropublished by Adam Matthew Publications in 1996 as part of a publication entitled Women's Language and Experience, 1500-1940. Women's Diaries and Related Sources .

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the University Archivist, Special Collections. Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

For additional photograph albums relating to East Africa and the Sudan, 1927-1939, see GB150 CMS/ACC28.

The University of Birmingham, Special Collections Department and the Orchard Learning Resources Centre hold a rich collection of archives relating to missions, charities and other religious and ecclesiastical organisations and individuals these include the official archive of the Church Missionary Society Archive (GB 150 CMS).